Zefat Views on the News Behind the News

A highlight of this year is the introspection in the Islamic world that is tearing Muslim families and countries apart.

This is the year of Daish (ISIS). This group of Jihadist Muslims leads the news almost daily. This is happening in the Hebrew Year 5775 – known as "TavShinAyin Hey" that has a gematria of 775.

[Tav = 400 + Shin = 300 + Ayin = 70 + Hei = 5. Total = 775]

This number 775 is exactly the "milui" of the word Yishmael. The "milui" of a word is its "fullness" and is the sum of the letters when spelled out. It sums up the fullest extent of the concept the word represents.

"...Who would dare place his cloak between a lion and a lioness...when they want to mate?"

Yishmael is the Torah name for the Arab nation that calls itself "the Umma" ['the nation' in Hebrew']. The Talmud quotes Rabbi Yochanan as saying "woe to the Umma that will be found at the time when G‑d redeems his children (from exile). Who would dare place his cloak between a lion and a lioness at the time when they want to mate?" (Sanhedrin 106) The meaning of this is that the lion would rip the cloak and the person intervening to shreds.

Bashir Assad has been leading the destruction lately. [Note that 'Bashir' means lion in Persian and 'Assad' is lion in Arabic.] The little lion is fulfilling his destiny – at least until the Umma aligns itself with the will of G‑d, which is to bring the Jews out of exile and into the Holy Land.

There is an opinion based on the Torah that Ishmael will repent at the end of days. This tradition is based on his very name that means literally, 'he will hearken/yishma - to G‑d (El)' and also on the verse in the Torah: "his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him (Abraham) in the cave of Machpelah." (Gen 25:9) By allowing Isaac to take precedence in the burial, Ishmael effectively gave up his claim of being Abraham’s first born son and thus entitled to the honor of being first in the burial ceremony.

One of the clearest things evolving this year is the introspection in the Islamic world about Jihad and the ideology of religious war that is tearing Muslim families and countries apart. Of note is President Sisi of Egypt’s speech to Muslim clerics at the Cairo University of Al Azar on 28 December 2014, demanding a new debate on the dangers of the Jihad political ideology and separating it from the Muslim religion.

The mayhem of Ishmael has caused the biggest enemies of the Jewish State to implode...

The mayhem of Ishmael has caused the biggest enemies of the Jewish State to implode – just as Rebbe Yochanan stated – with the current exception of Iran, although they are day by day being embroiled in the same ISIS dominated battle. It never ceases to amaze me that their "pagan" Persian forbearers gave the Jews permission to rebuilt their Temple and the current Iranian regime that claims to believe in the Holiness of the Torah wants to destroy the Jewish State!!

This chaotic state of affairs is happening under an extremely rare pattern of solar and lunar activity that the Torah states we should pay attention to –– "Let there be lights in the firmament …to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs….." (Genesis 1:14) The commentator Rashi states that "signs" means eclipses.

We are in an a four lunar eclipse cycle that is exactly equidistant in the Jewish Lunar calendar and is accompanied by two solar eclipses – all six events happening on significant Jewish dates over two years.

Jewish tradition explains that the sun represents the non-Jewish nations, so a lunar eclipse is regarded as a bad sign for the Jewish people because the moon is a metaphor for us. However, there are exceptions to the rule that a full lunar eclipse is bad news; two dates only in the Jewish calendar.

The first is Pesach – the 15th of Nissan – the Festival celebrating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. The oral tradition states that there was a lunar eclipse on that night; the evil that the Egyptians wanted to do the Jews boomeranged against them and there was a civil war that night among the Egyptians. As a result this night is called "Leil Shemurim" – a night of protection.

The festival booth is a shelter on an evil (lunar eclipse) day.

The one other exception is on the other major festival – Sukkot – that falls exactly 6 lunar months later on the 15th of Tishrei. King David says: "Hide me in Your Sukkah on a day of evil." (Ps. 27:5) The festival booth is a shelter on an evil (lunar eclipse) day.

Amazingly this cycle that began last Pesach is an exact 4 times repeating cycle. An eclipse on Pesach followed by an eclipse on Sukkot followed by an eclipse on Pesach and another on Sukkot!

This 4 eclipse cycle has occurred only 8 times in the last two thousand years – four within the last 525 years – and all those have been connected with significant events in modern Jewish history.

The first time this cycle appeared in the modern era was 1493. After the traumatic expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 they started to resettle in the Ottoman empire that controlled Israel. For the first time since the destruction of the second Temple, whole communities of Jews started settling in Israel - including in Zefat - in the 16th century, where the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) as well as the legacy of the Holy Ari, foremost leader of the Kabbalists, changed Judaism forever.

The next 4 eclipse cycle was in 1949. After the War of Independence in 1948, the Jews started to arrive in hundreds of thousands from the Arab countries surrounding the new state. In 1949 the majority of the Yemenite Jews (Al-Qaeda land) flew to Israel "on the wings of eagles," just as is written in the Scriptures.

In retrospect it is astounding that these avidly anti-Israeli states allowed their Jewish populations to resettle in the state that they all fought against only one year before, in 1948!

Pesach 1967 saw the beginning of the next cycle. By June that year, the borders of Israel had dramatically expanded and the Temple Western Wall and Temple Mount were returned to the Jewish people after 2000 years of exile, in a truly miraculous fashion.

This protection continues as the Ishmaelite nations around us...self-destruct.

At the time of writing, we are in the middle of the 4th modern cycle that began on Pesach 2014. By July that year, Gaza attacked Israel with rockets and the "protective mechanism" of the 4 eclipse cycle was reflected in the physical world above our heads by an "Iron Dome" defensive rocket system that saved our cities from wanton destruction. This protection continues as the Ishmaelite nations around us, sworn enemies of the Jewish State, self-destruct.

Associated with this 4 lunar eclipse cycle are 2 solar eclipses. These consist of the Sun (representing the nations of the world) being eclipsed by the moon (representing the Jewish nation). These 2 solar eclipses also fall on very significant days in the Jewish calendar.

The first eclipse falls on Rosh ChodeshNisan. This date is regarded as the New Year for Jewish Kings – representing a transfer of Kingship from one phase to another and there is an opinion in the Talmud that it is the proper date for the Jewish New Year. This year it falls on the 21st of March – 4 days after elections in Israel! It is quite possible that it is actually the date that the new Prime Minister will ask for his Government to be approved by the President. The 21st of March is also the Shia Muslim (Iran and the Hezbollah) New Year!

To crown this celestial cycle we are also due for an eclipse of the Sun on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah 5776!

It should be noted that planetary cycles have evolved from the primordial "Big Bang," so the fact that this protective cycle has appeared 3 out of the 8 times in 2,000 years since the founding of the State of Israel is a wonder that highlights the central role of the Jewish people in the spiritual development of mankind.

History is ‘His story’ and it is unfolding with precision and direction from the Master Conductor in all its power in these eventful years – and we have a front row seat and an important leadership role in the next scene.